10.2 political law links

OVERTURNED CONVICTIONS LOOM.   NYT.  “The legal turn of events in the cases against Sheldon Silver and Dean G. Skelos, the two former New York State legislative leaders, is almost certain to resonate in another corruption case unfolding just across the Hudson River in the federal courthouse here where the defendant is United States Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey.”

REID EXPECTED.   FN.  “Former Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid is expected to be called to testify in the corruption trial of Sen. Robert Menendez, a source with knowledge of the situation told Fox News on Friday.”

NEW LOW .  NYP.  “Perhaps our corruption laws really have become so weak that Menendez could walk when the trial finally comes to an end around Thanksgiving. But his breach of the public trust is so severe that if the Senate ethics committee is worthy of its name, he will be expelled from the Senate regardless of the verdict.”

ADS TURNED OVER.  ABC.  “Social media giant Facebook is expected to provide Congress on Monday with more than 3,000 ads that ran around the time of the 2016 presidential election and are linked to a Russian ad agency.”

CA:  WHAT WILL BROWN DO?   MN.  “The barely legible print that briefly flashes on-screen at the end of political ads will be gone, replaced by information people can clearly read, if Gov. Jerry Brown signs a closely watched bill targeting ‘dark money’ in campaigns.”

CT:  PUBLIC FINANCING LIVES.  NHR.  “Scores of Connecticut politicians reliant on public campaign financing got a stay of execution when Gov. Dannel P. Malloy vetoed the Republican budget last week, but some are still making contingency plans during the ongoing impasse over the state’s $3.6 billion deficit.”

MD:  WHAT NEW RULES MEAN.   BSUN.  “The Supreme Court ruled in 2014 that aggregate contribution caps were an unconstitutional infringement on free speech. Maryland election officials announced they would no longer enforce the $10,000 limit for the 2014 election cycle or the $24,000 limit for 2018.”

OK:  REPORTING ERROR.  TW.  “Reese said the accountant acknowledged making the mistake and resigned from his campaign Thursday. The accountant didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

9-28 political law links

ADS REVEALED.  ABC.  “Several anti-immigrant messages with an explicit pro-Trump slant are included among the 3,000 pieces of Russian-linked political content Facebook plans to turn over to Congressional investigators, ABC News has learned.”

REQUESTS TO TESTIFY.  GIZM.   “The House and Senate Intelligence Committees have asked executives from major tech companies to appear in open hearings tied to the committees’ Russia investigations. The requests follow a week in which Facebook, Google, and Twitter have faced intense scrutiny over foreign ad campaigns that sought to influence Americans during the 2016 election.”

NEW SCRUTINY FOR TWITTER.  NYT.  “In addition to Russia-linked Twitter accounts that posed as Americans, the platform was also used for large-scale automated messaging, using ‘bot’ accounts to spread false stories and promote news articles about emails from Democratic operatives that had been obtained by Russian hackers.”

FACEBOOK RESPONDS.  CNN.   “Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg responded directly to Donald Trump on Wednesday after the president claimed ‘Facebook was always anti-Trump.’”

AZ:  PAC ALLEGATIONS.  TUC.  “Former U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick is accusing a super PAC with ties to House Speaker Paul Ryan of violating federal election rules when it recently opened an office in Tucson.”

CA:  PROPOSED ORDINANCE.  MCW.   “County Counsel Charles McKee presented a draft ordinance to the supervisors Sept. 19 that would have limited individual contributions to 2 percent of the county’s median income, as calculated by the U.S. Census Bureau. That median is $58,783, making today’s maximum political gift $1,175.66 under the proposed ordinance.”

MA:  BILL AIMED AT FOREIGN ADS.  WWLP.  “The state’s Joint Committee on Election Laws heard from the public on Wednesday regarding bills dealing with campaign finance. One bill would limit political spending by foreign-influenced corporations.”

MI:  FURTHER DEREGULATION.  OBS.  “A new law recently passed by the Michigan State Legislature and signed into law by Republican Governor Rick Snyder sets a statewide precedent in scaling back campaign finance laws.”

MO:  CHALLENGE TO LAW.  STL.  “Missouri’s new campaign finance rules are again being challenged, this time by the state’s largest business organization.”

UT:  APPEAL IN CASE.  USN.  “Jeremy Johnson is taking his long-running fraud case to the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after he was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison last year.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

Skelos, ads, and more political law links

SKELOS CONVICTION TOSSED.  NYT.      “A federal appeals panel on Tuesday overturned the 2015 corruption convictions of Dean G. Skelos, once the powerful majority leader of the New York State Senate, and his son, Adam B. Skelos, toppling the final bookend of what had been historic, back-to-back convictions of two of Albany’s most entrenched leaders.”

BOARD ROLE IN CORPORATE SPENDING.  WSJ.   “More large companies are disclosing how they spend to influence government, and company boards are taking on a more direct role in overseeing that spending, a new study finds.”

ADS AND CANDIDATES.  POL.  “Other advertisements paid for by shadowy Russian buyers criticized Hillary Clinton and promoted Donald Trump. Some backed Bernie Sanders and his platform even after his presidential campaign had ended, according to a person with knowledge of the ads.”

SMITH ON ADS.  CCP.  “Foreign meddling in U.S. elections is not an issue to take lightly. If foreign governments are attempting to undermine our democracy, the FEC can play only a minor role in our response. The Department of Justice and our intelligence agencies should lead the way.”

SPECIAL COUNSEL LOOKS AT FLOW.  ABC.  “Three Americans with significant Russian business connections contributed almost $2 million to political funds controlled by Donald Trump, ABC News has learned.”

BAN IMPOSSIBLE?  POL.  “Lost amid the debate over whether Facebook can be trusted to police itself to stop Russian and other foreign interference in future U.S. elections or whether new legislation is necessary to accomplish this task is a potential insuperable roadblock to effective regulation: the conservative justices on the United States Supreme Court and their views of the First Amendment.”

FL:  RACE DEPARTURE.  MH.  “The Miami-Dade state attorney’s office has uncovered evidence that Grieco used a straw donor to conceal at least one illegal contribution from a foreign national, according to sources familiar with a public corruption investigation that began in late June.”

MD:  EXPENSES TO BE REPAID.  BS.    “Former Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has agreed to repay her campaign more than $5,000 after a state audit determined the spending was not related to campaign activities.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.